SINGAPORE, Apr 2, 2015 - (ACN Newswire) - The Festival of Media Asia Pacific 2015 came to a close yesterday at the Capella Singapore with a Gala dinner announcing the Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards Winners after four days of judging, conference sessions, sponsor-hosted breakout events, and networking opportunities.

Big winners of the night included Starcom MediaVest Australia who took home the Agency of the Year Award and helped cement Starcom MediaVest Group's success as the Network of the Year. OMD Australia picked-up the coveted Campaign of the Year trophy for their 'Penny the Pirate' campaign for LUXOTTICA. For a full list of the winners, please visit the Festival of Media Awards website.

This year the Festival hosted the biggest gathering of brands, agencies, media agencies, and ad tech companies from across Asia Pacific. Mobile, content, digital and innovation were highlighted throughout the event as key drivers that companies need to conquer in order to grow and expand in the region.

The conference started on 23rd March with a candid session with Malaysia Airlines' SVP and Head of Marketing & Products, Dean Dacko who shared Malaysia Airlines' learnings and provided delegates an exclusive look into airlines' social media crisis response and community engagement protocol during the MH370 and MH17 tragedies in 2014. Sharing details of the company's social media best practices, he highlighted the importance of re-establishing credibility, being assertive in messaging, and building a ready real-time global social media machine in the face of a crisis.

Addressing delegates in a very well-received session, Microsoft's global head of innovation, JC Oliver, noted that the most exciting developments taking place today are at the intersection between culture, traditional marketing, and data and technology; that defining innovation outcomes will help brands minimize failure and boost the risk-taking behavior in the region. In his session on the pace of change in Asia, Omnicom's CEO in Asia Pacific, Cheuk Chiang also cited examples of influential brands like Alibaba and Tencent, to show how successful innovation is based heavily on the principle of utility.

Other key sessions included one from PepsiCo India's CEO, Shiv Shivakumar who talked about brand trust, and how a brand now needs to win trust back from the digitally evolved consumer. A panel session featuring Steve Blakeman, CEO, OMD Asia, Stephen Haines, Director global agency team, Facebook and Billy Lagor, SVP & general manager Asia-Pacific from Hasbro discussed the central role that content plays in communication.

Charlie Crowe, Chairman & CEO of C Squared said: "Another fantastic Festival of Media Asia Pacific has come to an end and this was definitely one of the best events yet. The future of the industry depends on the how we tackle the issues before us today and how we keep pace with the rapid changes in the region. I hope that this event had led the conversation and opened new doors and ways for us to continue to do our work better. A huge congratulations to all the Awards winners as well and looking forward to seeing you all again next year, with yet another exciting lineup of events around the globe."

The Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards 2015, honoring the best media campaigns in the region were also announced at the event and a full list of winners is available on the FOMAP 2015 website. Following two days of intensive judging, a total of 38 different brands were rewarded for their work, with IKEA collecting the most trophies in four different categories for two of its campaigns. LUXOTTICA collected three gold trophies for its 'Penny the Pirate' Campaign of the Year, securing an unprecedented 100 percent conversion rate. The FOMAP 2015 Awards saw 48 trophies handed out for campaigns across 10 countries including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Speaking on the awards and the jury debate, Chair Pete Mitchell, Global Media Innovations Director, Mondelez said: "Jury duties are intensive and the 19 final jury members were locked in a room for two days reviewing over 100 case studies. This is my second year judging the Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards and I've noticed a definitive increase in the quality of entries, especially when it comes to the strategic thinking and leveraging insights. It was also great to see categories like mobile and social that are generally lower in the pecking order come to the forefront and be hotly contested."

As part of its commitment to supporting young talent, Festival of Media Asia Pacific 2015 also saw the presentation of two awards for young people. The Rising Star Award 2015, supported by Starcom MediaVest Group, was clinched by Jason Maggs, Co-Creation Strategy Manager, Mindshare Australia clinched the Rising Star Award for 2015, with his creative and insightful presentation in response to a brief provided by Airbnb. Five tertiary students bagged internships at Twitter as part of the #YPL Young Promising Leaders Program, sponsored by Twitter and Power98 FM. The five winners that rose to the top included: Amanda Ng Astha Kalbag, Edric Subur, Jecolia Tong, and Theodoric Phay.

The annual Festival of Media Asia-Pacific is supported by Founder Partners Bloomberg Media, SpotXchange, Rubicon Project(R), Starcom MediaVest Group, UM, Initiative, Millward Brown, and Microsoft. The Festival of Media will return to Asia-Pacific on 20-22 March 2016 in Singapore.

About Festival of Media Asia Pacific

Festival of Media launched in Venice in 2007 and the brand now has five major events across the world, attended by 4,000 senior delegates and receiving over 4,000 Awards entries. Follow the conversation as it unfolds live on Twitter @FestivalOfMedia and don't forget to use the hashtag #FOMA15, or visit www.festivalofmedia.com/asia-pacific.

About C Squared

C Squared launched the Festival of Media in Venice in 2007 and the brand now has four major events across the world, attended senior leaders from the media industry. In 2009, C Squared acquired the leading brand M&M Global along with the M&M Global Awards. The company also owns Creamglobal, now the world's largest database of media innovation, and its bespoke technology serves many of the leading global agency groups and multinational advertisers. More information is available at www.csquared.cc.